The Council of the Croatian Tourist Board adopted on Friday the Proposal for the reorganization and new structure of the HTZ Headquarters, prepared by the consulting firm Horwath Consulting, and its implementation will commence in eight days.
Some Council members opposed the adoption of the new systematization in the middle of the summer season, suggesting to wait until autumn, but the majority, including the president of HTZ and the Minister of Tourism Darko Lorencin, agreed that this is the right time to start the process as preparations for 2014 begin in the autumn.
The restructuring of the Headquarters, which involves 66 positions, will be based on three operational divisions: strategic planning and marketing, product development and destination management, and sales enhancement and partner relations, with horizontal support in an independent public relations service and an independent controlling and administrative service.
It is currently unknown whether new experts and staff will be hired in the system, but according to the statement from the director of HTZ, Meri Matešić, all currently employed will retain their jobs.
This is just the first step in a complete reorganization of the system that will follow at the beginning of next year, after the adoption of the Law on Tourist Boards, which will lead to the reorganization of around 320 tourist boards, as many as there are in the overall system.
Council members also commented on this year’s season. Everyone agrees that it is weaker than the previous one and that in the best case we will reach last year’s results, but many do not believe this, especially in financial terms. What is concerning is that hotels and camps have underperformed this year, while the occupancy of private accommodation is at last year’s levels. Hotels are running sales campaigns for cheaper accommodation of up to 50 percent. However, everyone is relying on September, which is becoming the new July in terms of peak season, when Croatian hotels begin to fill with conferences.
– We cannot say that the season is good, nor bad, but we can say that it is under control. We will be happy if we repeat last year’s results – stated Boris Žgomba, president of UHPA (Association of Croatian Travel Agencies).
Lorencin added that the 2013 season is special in many ways, and the situation with the Russians has further complicated matters. He stated that in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, they are working on improving the conditions for issuing visas for Russian guests, and in addition to online visa applications, visa centers have been opened and over 100 agencies are accredited to cooperate with consular offices. Additionally, the most money for marketing (six and a half million kuna) has been allocated to the Russian market, right after Germany. However, for hotel companies like Maistra, which reports a 37 percent decrease in Russian guests, this will not help much, nor will it for many other entities that relied on Russian spending.
